Wednesday, April 11, 2007

It was 45 degrees and raining at a pretty good rate for my whole commute. I'm on the bus and my legs (in work pants) are completely soaked. My shoes are buckets of cold water that happen to have my feet within them, and I'm just not loving life right now. I know. Fenders, Shoe Covers, Rain Pants.

Other than whining about the weather, not much to report this morning about my ride in.

On my quest for a road bike, however, an exciting possibility has popped up. Hoping to find a good used road, touring, or 'cross bike, I visited three bike shops yesterday. Acme Bicycle Co. downtown didn't have anything in my size that I liked. With 54cm being my maximum size for a road bike (which would offer zero clearance), it's hard to find a used bike my size.

The second store I went to had a bright orange 2006 Trek 1000 as pictured above. Not only do I love the color, but it's 52cm, which I know is really what I should be riding on a road bike after getting sized up at the Trek Store on Monday.

It's exactly what I had in mind. I wasn't actually expecting to be able to get a Cross or Touring bike, but figured if someone had such a beast laying around that they no longer wanted, they might be willing to trade. Some interesting facts about this bike:

It was purchased at this very same store around Christmas and returned not long ago. The buyer ended up not being into cycling.

It is last year's model, which is completely indistinguishable from the 2007 since it's the same frame and components -- and offered in a color that's valid for 2007.

It has less than 50 miles on it. I had a hard time telling it had been ridden until I saw a little grime in the crevices of the front fork.

If I get it, the bike shop manager is willing to give me the store's "new bike" warranty, free labor and tune-ups for life. I can use the warranty at any branch of the shop.

Now for the kicker. He was asking about the same price for this bike as I expect to get out of my car. When I told him that, he seemed interested in my car... interested in trading it for this bike! The manager had no way of knowing that I'd been trying to trade it, and I wouldn't have even thought to ask if a bike shop would take a car for trade-in!

Anyhow, if I don't get any offers on my car today, I'll throw a battery in it and take it out to Nick at Bike America in Overland Park. If he's happy with it, then I have my new bike!

4 comments:

Trade a car for a bike -- at the bike shop? That sounds like a sweet deal! I bet he knows someone who needs a cheap car (probably some teen ready to graduate HS or something) and he doesn't want to leave the bike sitting in the shop depreciating every month.

Actually, he said some of his techs have a lot of car problems, so it would be used by the shop (heh, tax write off!?) as an errand vehicle and as backup transportation for employees with car problems.

I thought it was funny that he wouldn't just loan his techs or sales people a beater bike (they have plenty of beaters in the used rack) to get to and from work. That's neither here nor there, however. At least I know my car would go towards a good cause.

The manager at this bike shop is a licensed car dealer and I can tell he's good working on them as well. He perked up when I said I was selling my car. *PERK* "What kind of car... ???" I could see the look in his eye. My buddy, Kevin, who's the main manager at Bike America down the street from me has known the manager at Nall since high school, and verified that he's quite the mechanic. That means one of two things:

Either he'll see my car has a lot of potential with a little wrench work and elbow grease, or he'll see that it would be more trouble than it's worth. He kind of insinuated that if it was able to be driven up there, he'd be more than willing to consider it.

The bike looks good; however, I've never been much for aluminum bikes. Everyone I've ridden has been rather dead sounding and with a dead feel compared to steel. However, it sounds like you have "an offer you can't refuse." I'd go for it.

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